I've had three distinct careers: biomedical scientist; FDA drug regulator; and scholar at the Hoover Institution, a think-tank at Stanford University. During the first of these, I worked on various aspects of gene expression and regulation in viruses and mammalian cells. I was the co-discoverer of a critical enzyme in the influenza (flu) virus. While at the FDA, I was the medical reviewer for the first genetically engineered drugs and thus instrumental in the rapid licensing of human insulin and human growth hormone. Thereafter, I was a special assistant to the FDA commissioner and the founding director of the FDA's Office of Biotechnology. Since coming to the Hoover Institution, I have become well known for both contributions to peer-reviewed scholarly journals and for articles and books that make science, medicine, and technology accessible to non-experts. I have written four books and about 2,000 articles. I appear regularly on various nationally syndicated radio programs. My most frequent topics include genetic engineering, pharmaceutical development, and the debunking of various manifestions of junk science.

Obama Cronyism Enriches Friends, Shortchanges Others

What could have spurred the Obama administration to insist on this deal with Siga? Well, as the Watergate leaker Deep Throat said to Bob Woodward in “All The President’s Men,” “Follow the money. Always follow the money.” According to David Willman, writing in the Los Angeles Times, the company’s controlling stockholder David “Perelman and others at Siga’s affiliate, MacAndrews & Forbes, have long been major political donors. They gave a total of $607,550 to federal campaigns for the 2008 and 2010 elections, according to records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. About 65% of that money went to Democrats. Perelman donated an additional $50,000 to President Obama’s inauguration.”

Now we come to the latest example of Obama administration cronyism that betrays our trust: the abject failure of the ObamaCare sign-up process, largely due to the design and testing shortcomings of the enrollment website, HealthCare.gov. The website was designed and created by CGI Federal, which was awarded a $678 million no-bid, sole-source contract, and whose senior vice-president, Toni Townes-Whitley, is an old buddy of Michelle Obama and an Obama campaign contributor. Mrs. Obama and Townes-Whitley were college classmates and both are members of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with government officials doing business with old acquaintances, but hugely lucrative, sole-source contractual arrangements with friends have the appearance of cronyism, especially when the beneficiary of the contract is incapable of delivering the goods. This project should certainly have gone out for bids, so that other, “non-connected,” qualified firms could have competed for it.

Much of what the Obama administration does is marked by a lack of transparency, fairness and equity. It’s no wonder that the president’s approval numbers are at an all-time low and most Americans think the country is on the wrong track.

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